How to Create an Online Marketplace With Sitemile Walleto WordPress Theme – A Review

Ever thought about creating a website like Amazon or eBay – an online marketplace where customers can come and start shopping from different vendors on the same platform? Well, now you can, thanks to Walleto – a marketplace theme by Sitemile. It offers a plug and play solution to get your marketplace website up and running in a matter of minutes, no coding required!

With the theme installed, you will get access to all the necessary bells and whistles, starting from the visual aesthetics to niche-specific features. Now, if you are looking for a more comprehensive insight regarding what it has to offer, and how to use the theme, then you are at the right place.

Here we have put together an in-depth tutorial on Walleto covering all its features and a quick look at operating the theme from your WordPress back-end. So without further ado, here is our full Review of Walleto – A Marketplace Theme For WordPress Websites:

A Turn-Key Solution

The theme is fully equipped with all necessary tools and functionalities you will need to create your online marketplace, and doesn’t require you to use any third-party software.

All you have to do is install and configure the theme, and in under a few minutes, your online marketplace will be up and running, ready to accept new vendors and allow online purchases by customers.

Custom Post Type for Products

With the theme installed on your WordPress backend, you will get access to a new custom post type – “products”. This allows you to create dedicated files for the product type with their taxonomies, without disturbing any pre-existing content.

Every User Can Create Their Own Shop

Vendors who want to sell products through your website can easily create their shop in a matter of minutes. The vendor account area comes complete with options to help them update their product lineup, add portfolio shop pictures, control finances, and all other things e-commerce related.

Similarly, customers coming to your website will also be given their account area. Here users can keep track of orders they have placed, configure payment options, and much more.

The whole platform is configured to help provide the most intuitive user experience.

Shopping Cart

Customers are also given access to a shopping cart functionality, which allows them to add multiple items before heading over to the checkout. Users are even given the option to pick items from different vendors to populate their shopping cart and complete the purchase from the checkout page.

Private Messaging System

A dedicated private messaging system is also built in to help users connect to their vendors if there is any confusion regarding a particular product or item. The messaging system can also be used to provide after-sale assistance to a customer facing problems with shipping, or the item itself.

Virtual Cash Support

Walleto offers a virtual credit/cash system which can be used to make purchases on the platform. Users can use real cash to purchase the virtual money. It can also be earned as a form of cashback system offered by your marketplace.

And just like users can use it to make purchases, once a transaction is complete, the amount is transferred to the vendor’s account. At the end of the month, the vendor can ask for payouts, based on the virtual cash they have accumulated.

Do note; if you don’t like the system, then it can be turned off.

Multiple Payment Gateway Support

Walleto gives customers access to various payment gateways for making purchases through your online marketplace. This includes all the standard payment gateways, including PayPal, PayPal Adaptive, Moneybookers/Skrill, Payza, iDeal.

Comprehensive Admin Control

You, the website admin, get access to a plethora of tools and options directly available from your WordPress backend, which gives you granular control over every aspect of the website.

This includes complete, control over the posted products, images used, item quantities, customer information, shopping details, user memberships, and so on.

The theme also gives you plenty of customization options to tweak the color, typography, and layout, to suit your taste.

Monetization Options

Besides helping vendors make money by selling products from your platform, you too can make a steady stream of income using its varied list of monetization options.

The most significant monetization feature under your belt is the subscription-based marketplace system. This requires the vendors on your website to pay a yearly or monthly subscription fee to operate an account on your website.

You can even set up your marketplace such that you get a cut out of each sale a vendor makes using your the platform.

Apart from this, you can also charge vendors by posting their ads on advert spaces on the header, footer, or home page.

Social Media Integration

Customers have the option to use their social profiles – Facebook and Twitter – to sign-up/log-in to your website. The social login functionalities save the trouble of having to create a new account from scratch, which improves your site’s UX.

How to Use Walleto WordPress Theme?

As we mentioned earlier, Walleto offers a plug and play solution in helping you build an online marketplace. As soon as you install the theme, the marketplace is ready to use. However, that doesn’t mean you can overlook the configuration part.

As such, here is a quick look at the different features and functionalities that are introduced after installing the theme.

We will divide this into two sections – the Walleto options available from the WordPress dashboard, and the front-end options panel for the vendors operating a shop in your marketplace.

Walleto: Admin Dashboard

With the theme installed, you will find three new options on the sidebar of your WordPress Dashboard.

#1. Walleto

Here is where you will find all the admin level controls for the Walleto theme and the marketplace. As you can see from the image above, you will get access to a whole laundry list of options. Here is a comprehensive look at these different options and their use.

Site Summary: gives you a quick overview of the total number of products and users on your website.

General Options: this is where you configure how the site will function.

Email Settings: allows you to configure automated emails and other emailing options.

Pricing Settings: you can configure which currency your store will use for all its transactions.

Image options: options for configuring the maximum number of images, and image quality.

Payment Gateways: options to enable/disable payment gateways.

Withdrawals: options to manage money withdrawals of vendors.

User Balance: option to add/deduct credits from user accounts.

User Reviews: access all user reviews on different products.

Private Messages: access all private messages from a convenient interface.

InSite transactions: access a record of all inside transactions.

Orders: access a catalog of all orders, paid, not paid, shipped, and not shipped.

Layout Settings: options for configuring your site layout.

Advertising: options to place ads on your website.

Tracking Tools: embed Google Analytics code snippets.

Info Stuff: basic information about your website.

Once you have properly configured your website using all the above options, it is time to head on over to the Products section.

#2. Products

If you want to add new products to your marketplace, you can use this custom post type.

As shown in the image above, head on over to your WordPress Dashboard -> Products. Here you will see all products currently available on your marketplace. You can edit each product just like you edit posts and pages.

Now to add a new product, hit the Add New Product at the top of the screen.

As you can see from the image above, the interface is similar to adding a new post or page. You will get access to the text editor for writing down the product description.

Once done, you can look to the right-hand side and will find options to enter the price, quantity, and shipping costs for the product. There are also options to enable/disable whether or not you want the product to be featured, paused, or hidden.

Scroll down, and you will get options to enter an excerpt for the product, add product images, and featured image. Similar to posts and pages, you can even include tags and categories to your content.

Another useful option is the ability to add variations of a single product. This allows you to sell the same product with different parameters like color, shape, and size. The shop owner can define different prices for different product variations.

#3. Shops

Similar to Products, the theme also includes a custom post type for creating new Shops for your marketplace.

You can access the section from your WordPress Dashboard -> Shops. As before, the interface is similar to the Posts and Pages section. You will get a glance at all the different shops currently on your website, including their active membership status.

If you intend to create a new shop, you will need to hit the Add New Shop button at the top.

Here, too, the interface is similar to creating a new post or page. However, you do get access to some extra options. For example, there is a dedicated section where you get to add shop information details, as well as provide a portfolio image.

Similar to pages, you can add categories for your shops with the added option for specifying shipping locations.

Walleto: User Front-End

Once a user creates a vendor account on your marketplace, they will gain access to the above front-end interface for managing their shop. As you can see, here we have a collection of options on the right-hand side menu, which consists of all the necessary options for managing your shop.

#1. My Account Home

My Account Home: here vendors get to see an overview of all their orders – the ones that are awaiting shipping, and the ones with outstanding payment.

My Shop Setup: here vendors have options to set up their online store. They will need to set up a shop URL, specify a category, location, shop title, Facebook link, Twitter link, portfolio picture, add shop description, and so on.

Finances: here vendors will get access to the current available balance, pending withdrawals, deposit money, and so on.

Private Messages: a simple messaging interface complete with a dedicated Inbox, Outbox, and option to draft a new message.

Personal Info: vendors can create their own user profile complete with their PayPal ID, shipping info, a profile description, and profile image. The user can also change their password for this interface.

Reviews/Feedbacks: vendors can access all the reviews and feedback left by their customers.

#2. My Shop

Sell New Product: here the vendor can add new products to sell on their shop.

Active items: vendors will get to see which items are currently active.

Out of Stock Items: vendors can see which items have gone out of stock.

Awaiting Payments: here vendors can see which products are still pending payment.

Awaiting Shipping: vendors can access a list of all products that are pending shipping.

Paid and Shipped: vendors can access a list of all products that have been successfully shipped and paid for.

#3. My Purchases

All Orders: access all orders in a single list.

Outstanding Payments: a list of all orders that are still awaiting payment.

Not Shipped Orders: a list of all orders that are yet to be shipped.

Shipped Orders: a list of all orders that have been successfully shipped.

Over to You

Walleto WordPress theme gives you a turn-key solution for creating an e-commerce marketplace, or merely an e-commerce store. As have seen, the theme comprises of all necessary options for running a successful e-commerce business, without any intervention from third-party tools or plugins.

Starting from adding products, creating new shops, and managing the overall website, are all done through intuitive theme options. You, the admin, get comprehensive configuration control over the theme from the backend. Whereas, vendors on your site get access to a super intuitive front-end panel for managing the store and products.

Furthermore, access to a plethora of payment gateways makes it super simple and convenient to accept payments from customers. You too can make a solid income using the variety of monetization options.

SiteMile has been constantly creating and selling many top quality themes including Auction theme, Project Bidding theme, etc and Walleto is yet another top product from them.

All in all, Walleto, it is an extremely useful and user-friendly option from Sitemile for establishing an e-commerce presence online.